Data mining system, method and apparatus for industrial applications

Abstract

A data mining system directed to industrial applications gathers data remotely from a plurality of industrial plants or sites and makes the gathered data available over a network to a user running a data mining application or on-line analytical process means to generate and, if desired, visualize results. Access to a service of this nature may be made available in connection with an on-line service, such as a website, that also provides access to industrial products and services. Subscribers to the on-line service, who may be charged a fee to subscribe, may be given an incentive to continue their subscription in the form of an offer of free or reduced-cost access to the above-described data mining system during their on-line service sessions.

I claim:  
     
         1 . A method for retaining a client subscription to an on-line site that provides access to industrial products and services, wherein at least one service includes data mining of a data warehouse populated with data relating to at least one industrial application, the method comprising the steps of: 
 providing an on-line site providing access at least to industrial products and services;    offering a subscription to the client to access the on-line site;    if the client accepts the subscription offer, further offering the client at least some access to the data mining service free of charge; and    charging the client a fee for subscribing to the on-line site, wherein the client subscription is retained by rewarding the client with the data mining analyses service access free of charge.    
     
     
         2 . In a data mining system, a method for providing analysis services directed to industrial control-related data originating at a plurality of client industrial systems, the data mining system in communication with the plurality of client industrial systems, the data mining system further accessible over a network by a user, the data mining system being associated with a data warehouse and comprising at least one data mining application, the method comprising the steps of: 
 collecting industrial control-related data from the plurality of client industrial systems;    storing the collected industrial control-related data in the data warehouse associated with the data mining system;    providing access over the network by the user to the at least one data mining application;    in response to the user-directed data mining application, retrieving data from the data warehouse and processing the data; and    delivering the processed data over the network to the user.    
     
     
         3 . A method for delivering industrial control-related on-line services to a user during an on-line session, the method comprising the steps of: 
 providing access by a user over a network to a data mining system during the on-line session, the data mining system comprising at least one application in communication with a data warehouse, the data warehouse comprising data collected from among network-delivered data originating with a plurality of industrial control systems, the application allowing the user to conduct analyses of data in the data warehouse and to view the results of the analyses; and    providing access by the user to non-data mining industrial control-related content, the access provided during the same on-line session.    
     
     
         4 . A method for generating a data structure comprising industrial control-related content for presentation to a user over a network during an on-line session, the method comprising: 
 generating a document for presentation over the network to the customer during the on-line session;    inserting into the document a first link that, when selected by the user, points to a second document relating to an industrial-control related data mining service; and    inserting into the document a second link that, when selected by the user, points to non-data mining industrial control-related on-line content;    whereby the user is provided access to the industrial control-related data mining service as an incentive to also access the non-data mining industrial control-related on-line content.    
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 4 , further comprising the step of inserting into the document content allowing invocation of the second link by the user only if the user is a paying subscriber to the non-data mining industrial control-related on-line content.  
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 5 , further comprising the step of inserting into the document content indicating that access via the first link to the industrial-control related data mining on-line service is free of charge.  
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 5 , further comprising the step of inserting into the document content indicating that access via the second link to the non-data mining industrial control-related on-line content is free of charge.  
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 4 , further comprising the step of inserting into the document content allowing invocation of the first link if the user by the user only if the user is a paying subscriber to the industrial control-related data mining service.  
     
     
         9 . A data mining system for providing analysis services directed to industrial control-related data originating at a plurality of client industrial systems, the data mining system in communication with the plurality of client industrial systems, the data mining system further accessible over a network by a user, the data mining system being associated with a data warehouse and comprising at least one data mining application, the system comprising: 
 data collection means adapted for collecting data from the plurality of client industrial systems;    a data warehouse coupled to the data collection means and adapted for storing data collected from the plurality of industrial systems;    on-line analytical processing means coupled to the data warehouse and adapted for analyzing industrial systems data; and    user-interface means for presenting to the user the results of on-line analytical processing.